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  • Bill...Bill...Bill...Bill..Bil­l...Bill Nye The Science Guy!!!

  • I went through the microscopes and telescopes as a young child. I became aware of chemistry around 9 years old when I learned how to make gunpowder. Back then you could get sodium nitrate and sulfur at the corner drug store. I began experimenting with formulae and methods of making, increasing the charcoal % and grinding under alcohol and evaporating to “plugs” I used as rocket fuel. I had some spectacular failures and still have all my digits.

  • On your site- I love that baby picture of Neil!

  • We mixed a copper (ii) fluoride solution into a beaker and places a strip of aluminum into it. It started to realease energy and produce heat and that really hooked me be cause I wanted to work with other chemicals that I have yet to interact with. Also 5 words: periodic table of the elements.

  • From when I was about 6 all I wanted for Christmas was a microscope! I wanted to see everything! I got one when I was about 7 and I decided to look at a tiny, tiny bit of cheese, then I thought, I wonder what it looks like moldy! Lol! So I put it away for a while, but then forgot about it! 1 year later I found it again hen we moved house....and it smelled quite bad haha! But now I really love chemistry, and I'm 14 years old :)

  • I've been watching your videos from the first to the most current for the last week or so. Loved the short video of Neil at the end. He's certainly a man of few words :)

  • lmao even back then the afro was coming along nicely

  • I was about 10 when I discovered gunpowder and that fact that I could get the primary ingredients from the local drug store (sulfur and saltpeter, sodium nitrate). The next few years were pretty entertaining.

  • Neil was actually showing a physics-experiment. It's how sound fortplants in water. Thus making longitudinal and transverse waves visible.

  • @linjedomarn99 That was from an experiment involving an alkali metal. Potassium I think.

  • prof Poliakoff is the best!!

  • 1:18 is the best part :D

  • "Chemistry was Far for interesting than the girl."

    Best Quote Ever.

  • ...twas the night before Christmas, 1968; after playing model trains boredom saw the game morph into train wreck game with a older child; he was unable to satiate his hyper competitive psychosis and escalated the game with what he called a atomic bomb to "out due my logic "by cheat & win"

    ~within moments of cleaning up train mess, eye had to ask "what is atomic bomb", from that day forward over the next 43 years I just kept with the questions needed to answer that question if only to prevent !

  • This vid is a wonderful tribute to the power of good teachers on young minds. Thank you, periodicvideos, for fulfilling that role for me and so many other youtubers

  • WE WANT NEIL WE WANT NEIL

  • Do you dislike Neil? Please, let him talk!

  • @mvszao he talks here /watch?v=zCARhVfeX5U

  • this is by far the best video. thank you all!!!

  • omg i love the picture of Neil ( on the site ), it's absolutely genius, why is it not in the video ??

  • omg i love the picture of Neil, it's absolutely genius, why is it not in the video ??

  • Neil was always there and will be always there...

  • neil is the stig of periodic videos

  • Neil has never been a child... Chemistry is just...

  • I was going to be a Mechanical engineer (I am great in Math) until AP Chemistry in highschool, I have since changed my degree to a double in Petroleum and Chemical engineering.

  • @Glassjaw003 woohoo chem eng! :)

  • I am more physicist than chemist, but when I was young (I am 21 now), there were science shows on TV (the French TV, since I live in France)…

    Today there aren't any more (and people are getting more and more stupid :-()…

    But now there is youtube and Brady, with his videos, thanks !

  • Perhaps Neil was never young, but came with the building?

  • Neil's history is a mystery...

  • 1:22 "The chemistry was more interesting than the girl." Hahaha, too right!

  • I think getting into chemistry these days is a bit harder seeing that everything is harder to find and possibly more expensive (to a 13 year old)

  • Delightful and great video, brings up so many memories!!!!

  • It seems Neil is the Teller (of Penn & Teller) or Silent J of Nottingham.

  • What an excellent video!  I loved hearing every story - and seeing the photos. :D My mom was (and still is) a chemist and I tried to follow in her footsteps. The math got me in the end, too, and I ultimately majored in Botany. My favorite chemistry class by far was Organic Chemistry.

  • Martyns explanation is perfect for me! I LOVE physics, but my maths ability isn't up to the battering it provides. I also really like biology. Ironically, chemistry was one of my least favourites at school; constantly doing titration after titration and having to write each up as if it was a new thing, even though we all knew what the standard was. But now, I own thousand upon thousands of pounds worth of chemistry gear, which is surprisingly cheaper than the other two. I do experiments daily.

  • Wonderful Video! Great to hear such delightful, personal stories.

  • This is why summer programs are so important for kids.

  • Neil is the Stig, that's why his past is top secret

  • in 20 years probably some on is gonna ask me the same question and my answer would be "well when i was 15 i used to watch these videos from a website called youtube by a profesor..." :D

  • :3

    

  • I suppose my own introduction to science came because I was just naturally good at it! Now I'm hoping to do it in college next year!

  • I love The Professor's book! It looks so beautiful!

    And Pirate Debbie was just adorable. :D

  • I had a pretty hard honors biology teacher in high school, in which i failed horribly. The next teacher i had was just a regular biology teacher and he was so cut and paste that you could predict based upon the book what he'd talk about next. They really ruined chemistry for me. But in recent years, I've been re-invigorated in chemistry. My only problem is, my memory is horrible and i can't get past memorizing the elements and their stats.

  • Clearly, this videos proves Neil had no infancy and, therefore, is a robot.

  • sam and deborah's pictures baby pictures are so cute! i love how martyn's older pictures has the crazy hair still, its like its plumed out, and gotten more crazy since then. i love it! and neil's one is perfect, it tells me everything! XD

  • Neil is like GMan from Half-Life series.

  • steve's hair look nice!

  • I bet Neil had to clean/tidy up all the toys for his siblings when they were done playing.

  • the video you guys did on dehydrating sugar with sulphuric acid blew me away... I had to do it so I did it for my chemistry ap project.

  • Extra pics, including another one of Neil, are on the periodicvideos blog... Link in the video description.

  • Neil is my hero!

  • I actually laughed out loud at Neil's story; after the seriousness of the rest of the video that was just hilarious! Thank you for a great video!

  • all of this euro school talk doesn't mean anything. It's hard to get an idea of when you actually got interested.

  • Neil rocks :D

  • That was just great, and thanks for remembering Neil.

  • Pardon my American ignorance... what in an "A level" ?

  • @thexsoar It's a qualification - typically studied between the ages of 16 and 18 - which is, so to speak, one rung down from an undergraduate ("bachelor's") degree.

    It's short for "advanced level". This was in contrast to the "ordinary level" (or "O levels"), which were a set of examinations completed at around age 16 (the age at which compulsory education ends in the UK).

  • Mind you, the older "O level" no longer exists. It has since been replaced by the GCSE (a "General Certificate of Secondary Education") and other forms of more modern qualification.

    Nevertheless, it retains its "advanced level" name, even though there is no "ordinary level" to contrast it against anymore.

    In essence, the "A level" is the bridging qualification between the end of compulsory education at age 16 and going to university (typically at age 18) to begin a degree course.

  • @thexsoar To put it simply, American colleges and universities judge applicants using the SAT, while English, Welsh and Northern Irish (but not Scottish) universities judge applicants using A-levels. Students usually study A-Levels in three subjects, though really bright students might attempt four or even five. Instead of percentiles, A-Levels are graded from A* - E, with A* being the highest possible grade.

  • @2:39 Aww look @ the dimples on Dr Kays.

  • I'd love to see an interview with Neil.

  • @ericfam01 Neil is chemistry's Chuck Norris

  • @un2mensch  agreed

  • @ericfam01

    It'd probably be just three to five minutes of silence.

  • I was 5 years old when my dad took my to an abandoned lead/zinc mine very close to our home. There I found a piece of lead ore. I asked him, why does this rock shine. He answered me, that when I get older if I'll be interested I'll find out myself. Now I'm at the end of my study in Chemical Engineering. A moment that determined my life :)

  • Neil! lol

  • Yay Neil! Aaa!

  • The retrospect was an awesome idea, thanks!

  • I'm sorry but Debbie wins the WhoWasTheCutestKid trophy here. <3

  • ive never heard neil talk..

  • @asseeninYOURDREAMS

    I bet he is this éminence grise in periodic videos team who pulls all the strings but no one notices, luv the guy

  • @periodicvideos what about the guy who is always cleaning up

  • The guy beside the professor is Ronald Reagan xD

  • You can blame my interest in chemistry on Don Herbert, better known as "Mr. Wizard"!

    RIP, Mr. Wizard. No telling how many scientists you inspired...

  • Dr. Poliakoff is just fun to listen to :) I don't know what it is, but his mannerisms and stories just intrigue me.

    Also, he looks like a stereotypical chemist so his profession fits!

  • LOOL. Niel. <3 him

  • so funny/cute to see everyone as a kid

  • Man Deborah is hot.

  • i say this is pretense to show cute children's pictures

  • I became interested when I saw a periodic table in a big book my mom bought for me.

  • I can indeed confirm that Neil is The Stig of the department, even I am scared of speaking to him, and I speak to Martyn on a virtually daily basis!

  • My interest in chemistry started with periodicvideos!

  • wow how do you guys remember how you got started? I hardly remember what i had for lunch. Guess my bucket is small and already full :D

  • And the chemistry was more interesting than the girl.

  • you should do a video of Neil, he's the men!

  • Awesome vid! OMG i'm going to fly to UK and get a voice out of Neil LOL

  • Dr Deborah Kays (ca 2:30) probably got obsessed with Boron back then around the time she read the junior encyclopedia :P

    Loved the end with Neil, he's the mysterious guy mostly behind the scenes that makes the wheels go around.

  • Awesome vid!

  • lmfao fuckin neil

  • Haha oh Neil :p

  • i love your videos

    :D

  • yo estudio quimica y me ha gustado desde que tengo memoria.

    mi madre es maestra y me acuerdo que cuando era chico me llevaba a sus clases y ella hacia experimetos que yo no entendia en esos momentos, pero los recordaba y todo lo que me decia ahora tiene sentido.

  • 4:43...SAME EARS!!!!!

  • Neil was born in a test tube at the University of Nottingham. since then he has been a subject in chemistry.

  • awwww baby pictures :-) how cute :D

  • LOL!! At some of the photos... Martyn had wild hair even back then.... nothing has changed then....

  • Sweet the prof always had awesome hair!

  • Neil is like the Harpo Marx of chemistry. :)

  • deborah....cutest. baby. evar!

  • They all have their phd.... fuuuuuuuuuuu nice

  • Neil had the best interview by far...

  • we should try to interpret what Neil tried to tell us.. he pulled up the hammer, and then let it fall.. that must mean something.. maybe it it was around the time of MC hammer, and it was unavoidable for him to go into physics like it's unavoidable of the hammer to get pulled by gravity and hitting the metal thing.. hmmm

  • @DeanMalenko Maybe he liked making loud bangs? He used the rig for the alkali metals with water reactions

  • Yes Dr. Kays, the fact that our table salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine was so interesting for me, that I began to learn more about chemistry, too.

    Chemistry is by far my most favourite hobby and my favourtie subject at school. Yes, I can say that I love chemistry really much.

  • 4:06

    I see the professor's hair hasn't changed much

  • I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that abandoned physics for chemistry when it became clear that serious mathematics was involved.

  • @leptonsoup337 me too

  • alright, so this is the proof that the doc has always had funny hair

  • I first got interested at age 5 when my dad bought be a chemistry set. It didn't really hook me though until age 15 in high school when I really started to understand that chemistry is not only the study of matter, but all that was, is, and will be. It still boggles my mind to think that although the cup I'm drinking out of is new, the atoms that make it up are billions of years old!

  • Does anyone know the ice and rock salt experiment to make ice cream without a freezer? I was 6 or so and I thought the salt sucked the heat out. 11 years later in high school Chem class, I found out that salt does lowers the freezing temperature :P

  • Is Neil the Stig of periodicvideos?

  • HAHA at 4:15 he says "Its a rather strange book.. its an American book... LOL. Love these videos. They are not only comedic but informative!

  • For me, it would be conducting and writing up chemistry set experiments with my Dad; I think every child should have a chemistry set at some point : )

  • So... Neil got hammered one night and the rest is history? That's what I got out of that...

  • @Epitome613 Best youtube comment ever. :)

  • My first experience with chemistry was at 18 when I discovered the wonders of dimethyltriptamine and decided to make some in my kitchen, it was a wonderful experience indeed

  • First time was when my older brother and sister had shown me how to make a Sputnik drink (soda, sugar and cream) though I know now that's more to do with the physics of these ingredients, it was mixing different liquids to get a new drinkable liquid. Certainly, this has contributed to my educational course (math, physics, chemistry etc).

  • I used to be really into chemistry but i've never been very good at written work etc so GCSEs really put me off :(

  • Of course Neil can't speak of his childhood relationship with chemistry. By age 6, he was already formulating assassin's potions for MI6.

  • Neil <3

  • My son's answer to this question is at 10 years old when watching Periodic Table of Videos!

  • i 've always been into math, but because my mum is a high school chemestry teacher i got really into chemestry, i think i like it more than her :P and it lead to physics which is what i'm studying now

  • Sam Tang got a perm. Here we see a younger chemist beginning the arduous, decades long quest to achieve the Professor's magnificent hair.

  • So stalking can lead to a career in chemistry? I never knew that. Thanks Dr Stockman!

    :)

  • 5:05-5:15 almost thought we are going to hear Neils voice...

  • I'm sad that Neil didn't get to give his bit. He's one of the most important people in the whole Periodic Videos series...

  • Dr. Sam? When did she make her phd?

  • @Fleshcut she's been Dr Sam longer than periodicvideos has been going!

  • @periodicvideos (Very late) gratulations to her! xD

  • @periodicvideos hahahah

  • Hahaha loved the ending.

  • Pete Licence looked funny in childhood

  • All makt åt Neil, vår befriare!

  • I would love to see a Video with Neil like the one on Sixty Symbols about the Tetris Addict! The quiet people are always most interesting once they tell something about themselves!

    Enjoyed the childhood photos, nice video!

  • Unfortunately, I've had a string of bad teachers, and physics teacher who was great who hated chemistry and biased me further against it. To me chemistry was always clear solutions and white powders, with the rare bangs that was never worth it.

    Eventually I had to teach it when doing student teaching and then when I got my first job and I fell in love with it. I tell my students it's because I get to do all the dangerous/cool stuff I used to just have to watch. It is now my favorite to teach.

  • Neil looks badass even when he's young!!

  • i hate to say it, but the Fukushima thing is a direct result of the century old super heat chucking policy of producing power. Basically one can use power or energy well if we capture the heat energy and use it. I don't know if any of you chemists notice, but centralization power production is "super heat chucking". The way to get completely around of centralized super heat chucking is to generate power near point of use and save the heat to use. It is not super heat chucking compliant.

  • i still remember my first chemistry set.

    had no idea what the hell cobalt was or what it did, but i loved the purple colour of the spirits and how cleanly they burned :)

  • Neil's story, of course, is morse code for "As a child I was trapped in an abandoned mine shaft. After much experimentation, I used various ores and crystals to create agents corrosive enough to dissolve a hole to the surface."

  • i got this degree in physical chemistry, but my childhood environment was not exaclty helpful in getting started i leared that the powerthermodynmics things changed when the steam engine was banned for road vehicles. This was a policy of genius since after that it was impossible to do a side by sid comparison or any research or development on the matter. We might believe there is some system in place protect us from systems of super heat chucking, but it's the authorities that set it in place

  • the first time i got really interested in chemistry was at 13 when i had an amazing chemistry teacher! He retired the next year which wasn't so great!

  • The first time I was introduced to chemistry was when I was like 7 or 8, my dad used to have a chemistry set shoved up on top of a wardrobe.

    I thought it was a cool new thing but sadly the age required was 10, and every birthday that passed I grew more and more excited on reaching 10. I lost interest in that set, but when I discovered the internet and youtube. I started to become fascinated by these reactions, it wasnt about a few years later where I began to study it and truly love it more

  • What?! Why doesn't Neil ever get any attention! :((((( poor guy

  • I hate to get carried away with this stuff, but the science and technology of thermodynamics has been bought out and the rest of us have been deprived. Don't believe it? Why is all power production centralized and heat chucking? Why did the steam engine vanish so suddenly and so completely and no one says why? It appear as if we have a centrally installed super heat chucking policy in place and no one can say anything about it or do anything about it.. We might not even need big energy.

  • @hypnofan35: Steam energy isn't "big" energy? What exactly is it you are proposing - a steam engine in every garage?  Get up early in the morning to stoke the boilers?

  • @puncheex For some reason i think about this stuff, i think i grew up thinking about it. There is a methodology that throws away heat. It's rare to see an operation where heat is saved. It should be easy enough to update these things . I could see the entire scene shifting in a year or two. It sounds good for nature and bad for big business. What we have is monopoly. It's like dracula for civilization. It sounds strange; "maximized good usage" What the heck Let's get crazy.

  • @hypnofan35: First, I challenge your claim that steam energy is inherently more efficient than, say, an equivalent powered IC engine. Remember that the SE includes the boilers and their heat source. Secondly, how do you that creating electrical power centrally, say, is less efficient than doing it in some distributed fashion? Seems to me that breaking it down and spreading it out must make it less efficient. What do you see shifting to?

  • @puncheex The difference in the two engines is that IC creates a huge amount of heat in a closed space and it doesn't get spent as power, it merely excapes to the outside. It is designed to do that. That is pretty much the whole thing. i've never seen a working steam engine.. Somehow this was put into place in a time of generally missing knowledge. As far as adding heat to the expandible media of water; that can be done very efficiently. Catching the leftover heat should be simplistic.

  • @hypnofan35 If you try to buy, build or own a steam or pneumatic engine, it will be taken away from you and you could easily lose your life as well. This is the single biggest example of force and enforced bad usage forced bamboozlement in the history of the planet. Everyone who uses fuel is officially and forcefully bamboozled. If you want to use fire you must pay the government for their methodology which turns out to be abysmally poor. i think it was set in place by "innerworlders".

  • @puncheex A dedicated drive gas engine does not have to run especially hot. We don't know this but one could be heat scrubbing engine that could back up and run on the heat cast off by an internal combustion engine. Another thing that is very siimplistic is generating one's own electric and using the residual heat for heating one home. That would be a 2fer using a fraction of the fuel other wise used as we do now. The heat is not waste. The heat is cast off as waste..

  • @puncheex The centralizing or monopolistic nature of the energy industry is not by accident. It came about before my time, but if monopolies tend to try to control as much as they can. In this case the government is in league with the "over burning scam" It's a liitle hard to understand but it is; extreme waste in an attempt to contol the use of fire. The question might be: Where are these heat capture devices and methods? Ans; These things are legally or secretly banned from earth

  • When I was 13 or so I watched the anime Full Metal Alchemist. The forays of Alphonse and Edward along with their use of Alchemy got me interested in Chemistry.

  •  Neil !!!!!!

  • Chmistry is to help with the basic nature of things, but is often a culprit in the business aspect of propagating bad usage. The steam engine seems to be a theoretically very high efficiency engine but we don't use it. We never ever capture heat for later use. We must be operating on the super heat chucking principal.. Basically this means that the science and tech of power thermodyanics has been bought out so super heat chucking can be centrally installed as the only power tech.

  • @hypnofan35: Basically, economics at the current level doesn't require high efficiencies. Lower ones will do, particularly when they are available at the turn of a key, And you're right, that's a business aspect. Business rules, at least for the foreseeable future.

  • Ha ha! Fun video, great to see the chemists as children. You know, for me, I remember the first time I played Super Mario Bros, the first one. It was on a regular Nintendo with my much older cousins. I died by hitting the first Goomba. But it was my first video game, and for some reason that captivated me. A bit of context, now I write software and hack my Android phone!

  • Awww Neil didn't say anything :(

  • @omegahunter9 I think Neil said more than enough ;)

  • @omegahunter9 because he is the stig =)

  • @omegahunter9

    he never says anything. i think thats why he's kool. :]

  • As an American, can you explain what the different schooling terms mean? Secondary school, GCSCs(I think thats what he said) etc. Thanks! Another Great Video BTW.

  • @Linuxpunk81 Secondary school is 11-16, the last compulsory stage of English education. GCSEs are the public exams taken at the end of this period. A-levels are optional post-GCSE exams which are much more in depth. For example, the median school person may take 10 or 11 GCSEs but then 3 or 4 A-Levels. I hope that helps.

  • @TheBlackLampChannel thank you. Much clearer now.

  • @Linuxpunk81 Secondry School i belive is your High School and GCSE'S are a compulory set of exams in all differnt subjects you have to do at the end of your Secondry /High school schooling hope that helps

  • Damn, same with me, I liked physics a lot when I was at secondary school, now at college, I prefer chemistry!

  • Good ole Niel....

    Got into sciences because of the physics of hammers destroying objects!

  • 0.48

    Oh wow Sam's brother/cousin/friend is GANGSTA